Some people think I’m smart. They might even say something nice, like “I wish I was that smart”. Flattery feels nice, and I know they mean well, so I just respond with a cordial “thank you”.
Deep inside, I know that I’m not as smart as I seem. Much of my success is really just the byproduct of hard work and determination. People don’t often see the self-training and preparations that I do. They just see results and think it came easy to me. I’ve even been offered a back-handed compliment about how nice it must be, that this stuff comes so easily to me.
The words smart and talented sound so similar. I suppose it is easy to just connect the two, like they just go together.
Talent is funny because some people are just “naturals”. They were born with an innate talent and they seem to make a difficult thing seem easy. Some examples are folks like Michael Jordon, Eddie Van Halen, Whitney Houston, Tony Hawk, Tom Brady, Warren Buffet, Jeff Gordon, (you get the picture). Each of them just seem so incredible and mind-blowing. Their skills are so impressive. They are like Rumplestiltskin, spinning straw into gold. Some of their accomplishments just seem inconceivable until you see it with your own eyes. Impressive!
However, the notion of someone being “a natural” might merely be an illusion more often than you realize. For instance, take Michael Jordon. If you read about that guy and his training, I think the word “obsessive” would fall way-short of describing his work ethic. In my previous list of (legendary) people, think about their competitors & teammates. If they told you about their work ethic, I think you would find a common thread: obsessive relentless work ethic. In other words, those people work their back-sides-off, day and night, weekends, holidays, non-stop. They are single-minded and relentless in their pursuit. It is completely un-natural.
The point I’m trying to make is this: being smart is nice, but it is just a raw material. Perhaps it is more-refined in some people, and less in others. Still, no-matter what you have, it can be developed into something better through hard-work, a sense-of-direction and pursuit of excellence. Talent means that you have a demonstrated ability to develop skills, whether you were born with them or not. It means that you are not a fluke. You earned what you have.
Of course, nobody really needs to know about what you did to get here. It is probably okay for folks to be impressed by the results and leave it at that.
So if you ever think “I wish I was born with a natural talent like [name anybody]”, think again. You probably are unaware of the toil, grit and determination, which now appear as natural talent. That could be you too. You only need to become obsessed with developing it. Like it’s just that easy. Right? 😊
Aah, the pain of being an elitist 